A Verdict is Reached

fter hearing four days of testimony the jurors returned a verdict of guilty. The five defendants, Telokite, Tomahas, Clokomas, Isiaasheluckas, and Kiamasumkin were publicly executed on June 3, 1850.

Transcript of verdict:

Oregon City, May 24, A.D. 1850

United States vs.Telakite

Tomahas, or murderer

Clokamus

Isiaasheluckas

Kiamasumkin

We as petitt Jurors in the above case find the Defendants Telakite Tomahas otherwise called the murderer Clokamus Isiaasheluaas and Kiamasumkin guilty of the charge as set forth in the indictment.

[signatures of jurors: Hiram Straight, Forman, Joseph Parrot, J.T. Hunsaker, William A. Cason, Andrew Jackson, Albion, Post, Samuel Welch, Joseph Olfrey, John Densmore, Anson Cone, John Ellenburgh, A.B. Holcomb]

After the verdict, the defense attorneys filed this motion asking for a new trial based on a number of exceptions to rulings by the judge. Particularly noteworthy was Judge O.C. Pratt's instruction to the jury that the surrender of the defendants by the Cayuse nation, "the nation knowing best who those murderers were", could be viewed by the jury as evidence of the identity of the accused. Pratt had clearly pressed the jury for a guilty verdict.

Transcript of the motion:

The United States vs.Telekite et al

Motion for a new Trial

The Defendent Telokite, Tomahas, Clockamas, Isiaaskelukas, Kiamiasumkin come and say that they court ought to grant them a new trial for the reasons following= to wit=

1st that the crime charged in the Indictment was not proved to have been committed within the County for Clackamas, the Territory of Oregon or the jurisdiction for the Court.

2nd that their is an error in the charge of the court to wit- "that there is no necessity to prove that the facts given in evidence occurred in the place alleged in the Indictment it is sufficient that they occurred within the County or other extent of the courts jurisdiction if the evidence raised a violent presumption that the offence which the prisoners were indicted (was?) committed in the District where they are tried it is sufficient"

And that that part of the charge of the Court in which the Court said "that the Jury might infer that the surrender of the Defendants

(page 2)

by the Cayuse nation as the murderers the nation knowing best who those murderers were, as an official fact communicated by him to the Jury should go to the Jury, and be received by them as evidence of the identity of the accused the Honorable O.C. Pratt not having been sworn and stated the same in evidence and tat there was no evidence before this court that the Cayuse nation had surrender the Defendents as the murderers.

Teloquoit his mark

Tomahas his mark

Clokamas his mark

Isiaasheluckas his mark

Kiamasumkin

Judicial practices have changed greatly in the nearly 150 years since the Whitman Massacre trial. This bill of costs proves that trial expenses have changed too. Despite the attention received by the case, costs remained modest.